Dinner between David Foster Wallace and Toni Worrison

If David Foster Wallace and Toni Morrison were to join together over a meal, their conversation would revolve around one awakening topic that would lead to much contemplation- suicide. Wallace would begin by quoting himself saying, “…adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in the head. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.” He would then say that we are slaves- slaves of our own making simply because of our hard-wired default-setting of selfishness that led to our own mortality. Morrison, being the wise woman from her story, would bend her wrist to let the wine slowly circulate around the bottom of her glass. She would look up to him and say, “Are we slaves of our making, David, or are we slaves burdened by the adults who reared us?” She would then do as he did and quote herself saying, “…children have bitten their tongues off and use bullets instead to iterate the voice of speechlessness, of disabled and disabling language, of language adults have abandoned altogether as a device for grappling with meaning, providing guidance, or expressing love.” Wallace would listen contently as the words continued to flow from her mouth, “At the end of my Nobel Lecture I spoke a metaphor. I spoke of a boy climbing into a wagon with a lantern, innocent as can be, to help feed slaves in the blistering cold. But, I also said that three years from then, he would be the one holding the gun. How would that boy have changed so drastically if not from an outside influence? Now, after asking that question, David, do you still believe that we are slaves of our own making?” Wallace would think over her question but would regretfully say he was out of time to continue their dinner. Morrison would stand up, shake his hand, and they would depart, going separate ways, as old friends do.